JESUS is everywhere

Wow.  I have thousands of stories from just 5 days.  Where to start…

Not only did we spend a lot of time at Casa Hogar Elim, many of us wandered out into the surrounding areas.  We went into “las colonias”, the local neighborhoods surrounding CHE, the middle school, a few stores and into the city.  I noticed a lot of graffiti on walls, but was surprised about the theme of it.  At first I thought it might be a random thing, but as I continued to look around, I saw the name Jesus a lot.  Now my first thought is that some guy named Jesus (he-sus) has way too much spray paint and he gets around.  Also, my lack of Spanish means I’m probably posting photos with no telling what on them, however these people worship Jesus all the time and He is in the forefront of their lives.

And as Sloan said in an earlier post, they love to know our names.  Not only do they want to know our names, but they write them down, like in this photo.  ”Jesus te ama” is Jesus loves you.  This is one of many pieces of paper like this.

This other photo is of a chalkboard in one of the classrooms.  The kids love chalk!  Shortly after we arrived, the concrete was covered with chalk art, much of which had crosses, hearts and Jesus.  I haven’t even gotten to those photos yet.  They are absolutely beautiful.

All of this reminds me of a saying that is on my bathroom floor.  (Yes, I’m aware that is not normal and my bathroom floor is a whole other experience, but later…)  It says, “In America you’re seldom in a position where you NEED God.  It’s something that we need to experience – where we’re in a position where we have to actually TRUST God.”

I’ve been back a few days now and it’s difficult not to think about the experience of this trip every single minute.  I went down there to serve them, but that worked the other way around.  I think it was Elizabeth who had a Facebook update of being forever changed.  I don’t see how anyone could go there and not be forever changed.

Jody Wissing

eHarmony or eHARMony?

Ok, so on the advice of my sister, I decided to fill out the personality test thing for free but not sign up for the service. So I did it. Got my personality profile. Interesting. So I’m now on the mailing list. Yeah. And there are some very interesting articles out there.

There’s one very helpful one for any woman wanting to go on a date. How to dress. ‘First Date Fashion for Women’ to be exact. Okay, this should be good.Dress, of course, is an integral part of your presentation. It’s one part dressing for the occasion and another part preserving who you are at the core. On a first glance fashion tells your story— it holds clues to your personality, conveys how you are feeling, and even how you want him to feel about you when he sees you. I would love to know what ‘story’ men get from my first glance fashion. Maybe something like ‘Wow, what was she thinking when she got dressed this morning?’ Or maybe ‘She’s definitely on the single mom budget.’ Oh well, weeds out the gold diggers. How about ‘Gee, if she only wore a little makeup…’ ‘That hair is crazy!’ ‘I wonder if she really owns a Pinto.

Seriously. How about this?Peep-toe flats in patent leather or animal printa. I guess that means they want me to get a pedicure. b. They want me to go shopping becasue I don’t own anything with that description. c. Are guys really into these peep-toe things? Just curious.

The closest description I can find to myself in this advice is The Betty (Casual). Okay, so let’s see what I should wear…

• Ankle-tie wedge espadrilles
• Embellished flat-thong sandals
• Head scarf
• Straw totes
• Ballet flats
• Chunky plastic beaded necklaces and bracelets??!!!! 

First, anyone that knows me here. Straw tote? And that’s supposed to be a safe environment for my G4 Powerbook? Head scarf? I really don’t think I could afford one that covers all my hair. Chunky plastic stuff belongs in my altered art, NOT on my body. And what in the hell is a espadrille???

Okay guys, can any man enlighten me on this dressing thing?

And the funniest part of this advice… I clicked to view the article for what men should wear. And it’s gone. Doesn’t exist. Guess they can wear what they want or go naked. Naked would just make this process way easier.

a friend-ly reminder

This is what happens when you have creative friends, a broken key on your PowerBook and a spare 5 minutes.

So just messing around with Jerod’s broken laptop… we thought, “Hey?! Wonder what the old keys would look like with the new lit PowerBook??” So it started. We changed out the ‘:’ key that keeps popping off. It looked cool, so then we had to switch out one of the Apple keys. Then Jerod said, “We have to switch some of the letters too”. So he choose 8 letters that spell three words. (Thus the ’3′ key that I switched out) Can you guess the three words? Letters may be used multiple times.

a e d r y n j o

I’ll post the answer in a few days. Unless of course someone gets it.